Strike of Conscience
by corneroffandom
Summary: Set during Zack Ryder's US title run. Left with the choice to stop another of Kane's attempts against Zack, what will Dolph do?


Toweling his hair dry after a match, Dolph Ziggler sighs as he wanders down a hallway, anxious to get into street clothes, go to the hotel and crash. He loves his life and his job, but sometimes the daily aches and pains wear at him until all he wants to do is sleep for five days. He's almost to the locker room he'd been assigned to earlier in the day when he smells something acrid and unavoidable, stopping short in the middle of the hallway. Tugging the towel from his face, he looks around. "Is that smoke?" he mumbles, checking each of the rooms around him.

Finally he sees a thin line of grey smoke billowing out of a nearby room, rising up from the small space between the bottom of the door and the floor. He frowns, backing away slowly as he prepares to run to get help. Before he can even take two steps, though, something stops him. There's nothing to be heard, no hint that he should stay here and stare, but there's something...

Something telling him to stay. To help. He shakes his head, frowning, as the strange feeling leads him back towards the door. The closer he gets, the more he realizes- _It's the trainer's office._ He reaches forward and touches the knob, wincing back at the heat just that provides. _What am I doing? I can't..._ He's about to run off once more when his eyes lock on a fire extinguisher nearby. Automatically he grabs it and, without thinking, crashes into the trainer's office, immediately spraying everything around him.

The fire reluctantly loses its hold and he gapes at it, his eyes slowly slipping down to a limp form nearby. It doesn't take long to recognize who it is, his breath seizing in his lungs. "No way." Sucking in a breath of air, he starts coughing, his eyes watering. "Damn." Muttering under his breath, he considers just leaving, looking from the door to his off-and-on rival, the current US champion, Zack Ryder, stretched out unconscious on the trainer's couch, still wrapped up after yet another attack by Kane. He can't help but think that whatever had happened in this office to set that fire raging had been yet another trick by the Big Red Machine to get at Cena... if Dolph hadn't gone by when he had, well... who knows what would've happened.

He bites his lips, looking once more at the motionless young man. "Damn," he repeats, quickly rolling Zack off of the couch and supporting him into a limp standing position, pulling his arm over his shoulder. "You owe me one, big time, Ryder," he grunts, dragging him out of the room and into the hallway. As he slumps down, dropping Zack to the floor, he coughs and chokes slightly, in disbelief on just how much smoke he'd taken in in the few minutes he'd been in the room.

He looks back over at Zack, uncomfortable with how shallow the other man's breathing is, growing even more worried when he realizes that he's the only one coughing. "Aw man come on!" Lunging across the tile floor at him, he grabs him by the bandages snaking around his midsection and pulls him forward till he's leaning against him. "Don't die on me, idiot, you have to tell everyone how I saved your life." He smacks him roughly between the shoulderblades, holding his breath as he listens for any kind of change. "Come on, Zack!" Another hard hit and...

Zack gasps and chokes, sputtering and coughing when his lungs contract and refill, his ribs struggling against the heavy bandages wrapped around them. His eyes flutter a few times as he reaches blindly out towards Dolph, finally gripping the towel still wrapped around his neck. "Ugh..."

Dolph sighs, some of the tension leaving his eyes as he supports him. "You with me?"

"What happened?" he asks hoarsely, eyes still squinted shut tightly as he winces in time with the coughing.

"I think it was Kane..." the blonde mutters, trying not to think about how close he'd come to just letting his former friend stay in that room and potentially die of smoke inhalation. Of course he hadn't known how bad off Zack was until they were actually out in the hallway, but the thoughts of it leave him cold anyway.

Zack groans, leaning his forehead against Dolph's shoulder, still unaware of things around him. "Who else would it be?" he asks bitterly, his eyes fluttering open. Realizing just what he's doing, he pulls back sharply, staring up at his rival in shocked realization. "You?"

"Yeah, me," Dolph mutters, looking away in an attempt to give them both a chance to distance themselves from what'd just happened.

Zack still looks dumbfounded and a little paranoid, eyebrows burrowed in a frown as he examines his rival. "Why? Why'd you help me?"

Sneering, the Show Off shrugs. "I'm not completely cruel, Ryder. Even you taking my US title isn't reason enough for me to just let you die or whatever." He stands, brushing off his hands. "You better be taking good care of my title, by the way, or I will come back for it."

"Whatever, bro," the current champion rolls his eyes, slowly pulling himself over to the wall to lean against it.

Dolph glances towards the trainer's room, finding the fire gone with very little damage. His earlier suspicion that it was some sort of supernatural nonsense targetting only Zack, since it hadn't spread beyond that room, and it had happened in a time when Zack was all alone, grows with each passing moment. Holding back a shudder at the thought, he glances down at Zack. "Better get checked out by a trainer, you probably inhaled a lot of smoke."

"Yeah, I will." The host of Z!TLIS sighs, his eyes closing as he listens to Dolph slowly walking off. "Hey, Ziggler?"

Dolph stops but doesn't turn around, his lips twisting uncertainly. "Yeah?"

"Thanks for... for all of that."

He chuckles and rolls his eyes, raising a hand in a half-wave. "Yeah, sure. Don't expect it to happen again." He takes a few more steps while Zack stares at his back, half annoyed and half disappointed. "You're welcome." He overhears as Zack snorts to himself before falling into another coughing fit, wincing at the raw sound of it. Sighing, he continues on his way to _finally_ get that shower, find Vickie and Jack and go get a drink. Sleep doesn't sound as appetizing as it did ten minutes ago.


End file.
